Barangay Ginebra dashed San Miguel Beer's grand slam hopes and nurtured its own dream - back-to-back PBA Governors Cup championships - as the Kings crushed the Beermen, 104-84, in their quarterfinals faceoff in the PBA season-ending tourney at the MOA Arena in Pasay City Wednesday.
The Kings came out strong and outfought a stunned San Miguel side almost throughout in a surprise rout that sent the reigning champs to the best-of-five semifinals against the winner of the Rain or Shine-TNT KaTropa quarters matchup.
Justin Brownlee and his teammates dealt the Beermen a decisive beating, handing coach Leo Austria and his troops their worst loss in the season.
"Nobody saw that coming," said Ginebra coach Tim Cone, himself surprised on the manner they won the ball game.
"We're in the right place at the right time. We caught them on our good night and them at their bad night," said Cone.
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"I feel bad for San Miguel they missed the grand slam. It's always a special feeling to chase a grand slam. It's not easy that's why it doesn't happen very often," Cone also said.
The Kings were determined to pursue their own aspiration, showing great resolve in delivering the killer blow in the Beermen.
Brownlee erupted for 37 points, Joe Devance collected 17 markers, Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar contributed 13 each while LA Tenorio, Sol Mercado and Scottie Thompson played stellar roles at the backcourt.
"We played great from start to finish, getting a couple of massive games from Joe and Justin that kind of propelled us. Sol came off the bench and hit crucial three-point shots. He struggled in our last couples of games and it's great to see him step up," said Cone, also lauding Slaughter, Aguilar, Tenorio and Tompson for their efforts.
"We know they're gonna go on a short rotation, playing six to seven players. And we talked about also sticking with our own six to seven players," Cone pointed out.
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Seemingly always a step ahead of the Beermen, the Kings established control in the second quarter and kept the pace through the secold half.
The Beermen went down and blew their grand slam hopes as they failed to keep up with the Kings' super-charged game. (SB)
